Timothy L. O'Brien, Columnist

Reality Meets Reality TV in the Oval Office

Trump has always been more performer than doer. His trade bluster provides a new achievement test.

April 6, 2018 at 2:06 PM UTC

Timothy L. O'Brien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

Performance art.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

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The Trump Era began when the future president descended into Trump Tower's lobby on June 16, 2015, aboard an escalator. He launched his campaign there with a speech in which he promised, among other things, to build a "great, great wall on our southern border."

Trump has clung to that idea ever since. On Wednesday he vowed to send the National Guard to the southern border to patrol the area until the wall, which hasn't been built, is built.